General computing info for those new to BCS/CVS

Welcome to BCS/CVS! This purpose of this wiki is to describe the basics of the computing environment within the BCS & CVS departments. It will also provide some useful basic info about computing at UR in general.

First, the main computing wiki site contains a lot of other useful info regarding the BCS & CVS computing environments and how to get things done. Please check it out:

• https://wiki.bcs.rochester.edu/ComputerHelp

River Campus & the UR Medical Center

The university is divided into two main groups, River Campus (the academic side) and the Medical Center (URMC). The computing environments within each group developed separately from each other, and as such policies and procedures differ between the two. There exist many differences between the two that will have an impact on you (especially if you are a member of CVS).

BCS exists entirely on River Campus.

CVS exists both on River Campus and at the Med Center and utilizes resources on "both sides of the street". This sometimes creates some confusion regarding who to contact for technical support.

It is possible for a member of CVS to be physically located at the Med Center but be considered a River Campus employee.

Who provides my computer support?

The short answer is that a few people/groups will.

I (Chris Freemesser) am the systems administrator for both BCS and CVS, and provide primary technical support for everybody in BCS as well as the core userbase in CVS. However, while anybody affiliated with CVS can ask for my help, all faculty in CVS have primary appointments in other departments, and those departments may have their own IT staff that a CVS faculty member may choose to rely upon.

IT support at the University-level is provided by two different groups: University IT (for River Campus matters) and ISD/Academic IT (for URMC matters). Both have help desks that can be contacted via phone or e-mail:

University IT: 275-2000 or univithelp@rochester.edu . Website: https://tech.rochester.edu

ISD: 275-3200 or helpdesk_ISD@urmc.rochester.edu

Who supports what?

As the departmental IT manager, I provide primary technical support. This includes all support related to your BCS/CVS-provided computer(s) as well as printing and data storage issues. If you're a member of BCS, I also provide support for networking (wired and some wireless) within Meliora Hall. I also manage all of the departmental computing resources (NAS devices, wiki server, web server, etc.)

Support for University-provided services (like e-mail, HRMS, Blackboard, etc.) is typically provided by University IT or ISD and requires opening up a trouble ticket with them. However, contact me first if you have an issue with such things, as I can resolve some issues with these services myself.

User accounts

All employees of UR are issued a set of credentials called your "NetID". These credentials are used to log into things such as the human resources system (HRMS) and some other systems distributed around the University.

All employees are also issued an Active Directory (AD) account. These credentials are used to log into other things such as e-mail, wireless networks, VPN, etc. However, there are separate AD credentials for River Campus employees and URMC employees. As expected, RC AD credentials let you log into things on River Campus, and URMC AD credentials let you log into things at the Med Center.

It is common for your NetID credentials and your primary AD credentials to be synchronized with each other. To view your credentials and make changes to your accounts (like changing the password), visit http://myidentity.rochester.edu. If you select the "change password" option, you'll see what credentials you have and what services each one is used for.

Please note that these credentials may not be what you use to log into any BCS/CVS-specific resource (like any computer we provide you or any of our departmental servers). You may have separate BCS or CVS credentials for these resources.

When you first arrive you may receive an e-mail from UnivIT/ISD that says that your AD account is what you use to log into computers on campus. That's true for the public-use computers you may find scattered around River Campus, but may not be true for BCS & CVS managed systems.

E-mail

Employees who are considered River Campus employees will be assigned an e-mail account in Microsoft's Office365 environment, and you will use RC AD credentials to log into it. River Campus O365 e-mail addresses end with "@ur.rochester.edu". You can access the O365 webmail interface at: http://owa.ur.rochester.edu. Connections from off-campus require the use of Duo two-factor authentication, which (as a new user) you should have set up as part of your account initialization process.

Employees who are considered Medical Center employees will be assigned an e-mail account in URMC's new Office365 environment, and you will use URMC AD credentials to log into it. URMC e-mail addresses end with "@urmc.rochester.edu". URMC's O365 webmail interface is located at http://outlook.com/owa/urmc.rochester.edu

Both BCS and CVS maintain several departmental mailing lists...a list of them can be found here: https://wiki.bcs.rochester.edu/ComputerHelp/MailingLists

Duo Two-Factor Authentication

The University uses Duo two-factor authentication for accessing various UR systems from any non-UR network (which includes the guest wireless networks on campus). Currently the most common use for Duo is when using VPN (remote access) to connect to the UR network from off-campus. Note that there are three types of Duo used at UR depending on what authentication mechanism is used to log into a particular service...a version based on your NetID, a version based on your UR (River Campus) Active Directory account, and a version based on your URMC (Med Center) Active Directory account.

Be sure to enroll in whatever flavors of Duo you need...the enrollment page is here: https://tech.rochester.edu/services/two-factor-authentication/

NOTE: The easiest way to enroll in Duo is from a computer connected to a non-guest UR network. If you need to enroll from elsewhere, contact the University IT (for River Campus) or ISD (URMC) help desk for assitance.

Computers

Users within BCS and CVS are typically provided a computer by the department. These computers are typically configured and maintained by the department, not configured/centrally managed by either University IT or ISD (who centrally administers most computers at the Med Center, but not ours). As such, any questions/problems/concerns regarding your computer should be directed to me, not to UnivIT/ISD.

Printing

All printers within the areas I administer are owned/operated/managed by the department/myself. As such, any questions/problems/concerns regarding printing should be directed to me, not to UnivIT/ISD.

Backup system

BCS & CVS own/manage our own centralized computer backup systems that perform regular backups of computers within BCS/CVS. Participation in our backup system is ultimately optional but STRONGLY recommended.